Slavery: A Narrative Essay

Although slavery in the 20th century isn’t like it was in the 1900s, slavery is still very much alive. Elaine Richardson, the author of PHD to Ph.D: How Education Saved My Life tells her story of being enslaved throughout her life and it reflects many slave narratives written in the 1900’s. According to the article, The Slave Narrative, there are twelve distinct characteristics covered within slave narratives and like many of the 19th century slave narratives, “PHD to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life” shared their common characteristics.

Like many nineteenth century slave narratives the spiral down to slavery started by moving from a state of innocence to the realization that they were enslaved. All that Elaine ever wanted was someone to make her feel loved, confident, and beautiful. But growing up with such low self-confidence, instead of having the patience to wait for the right man to come into her  life, her lack of self-esteem mislead her jumping at one of the first guys that showed interest. A good looking, sweet talker named Andrew came along and turned her whole life around. As time went on, his true colors came out and by the time Elaine realized he was a no good, abusive hustler, it was too late to get out. Her strong love and devotion to her fantasy of him was the gateway to her slavery. When Andrew went to Jail for hustling and needed bail, he turned to Elaine. He called from jail and said “I got busted. I need some grands for a lawyer and for my bail … you love me don’tchu?”(Richardson 61) Elaine was so brainwashed and weak for his twisted form of love that she was willing to do anything to get her man free. Now, not only did she belong to him but she was now becoming a sex slave. She thought “Okay, after he gets out of this trouble, I won’t have to do none of this no more” (Richardson 66). But it wasn’t going to end. She was Andrew’s slave and what he said went.   

Dehumanization by masters is also a common characteristic in slave narratives. Elaine’s first relationship with Andrew was just the beginning of the deterioration. Each new boyfriend was another step in tearing her down. She went through beatings, sexual abuse, drugs, and a lot of psychological abuse from each man. Starting with an incident when Elaine questioned Andrew about being with another women and resulting in him laying hands on her. Elaine claimed “he punched me in the stomach and I fell to the floor. He began kicking me in my back, as I huddled into the fetal position” (Richardson 46). This physical torment she received from him was not going to be the last. And this treatment started affecting her psychologically. She began to think “this is happening to me because I’m ugly. I have big lips and nappy hair. There is nothing special about me” (Richardson 47). Feeling so low in her life, her next pimp, AC, wasn’t quite the solution to her problem. Elaine started drinking, partying, and prostituting more than she went to class or work. She gave up college and her career for AC and the affection she craved from him. At one point, AC went off his rocker when he found Elaine at one of her guy friend’s houses. Elaine claimed, “he beat me so bad, I had two black eyes, a fat lip, lumps in my head and I was just bruised and sore all over my whole body. I wanted him to kill me, because I didn’t think life could go down any further” (Richardson 119). These men had torn her down so much that she no longer believed in a light at the end of the tunnel. She now hated herself so much that she didn’t even care if she was dead. AC ended up dying but the men in Elaine’s life kept coming. Her next man, Snap, made her feel good about herself but he was the gateway into her cocaine addiction. She claimed, “Snap and I got into a pattern of shootin up until we almost overdosed every Friday on my paydays” (Richardson 126). With Elaine already on a downward spiral full of self-hate, the last thing she needed was to have a cocaine addiction.

As Snap faded out of her life, drugs stayed and Mack, her new lover entered. He was the worst of them all. Even though Elaine prostituted for him, he promised that he was saving that money to one day open up a jewelry store with her. Elaine worked the streets as much as she could just to save up. Mack gave her a glimpse of hope and she thought he was had potential as husband and he could be the key to getting out of this lifestyle. Elaine was proven wrong when her friend brought her to a club one night only to find that “Mack was sittin there with a pipe in his mouth, surrounded by smoked out hoes. They were all up on him, rubbing on his private parts, working him to buy them another piece of rock” (Richardson 149). This completely devastated her. The one man she finally had hope in was spending her cash on drugs for other women. This was enough; she couldn’t take the torture any longer.  

She had hit her lowest point; Mack had been abusive throughout their relationship but not to these extremes. One night, Mack insisted they shoot up cocaine together. Elaine reluctantly agreed, knowing that Mack gets violent when he is high. She knew if she stayed with him she was going to die that night. Although Elaine was naked and in fear for her life, but she saw an opportunity and booked it out of their apartment. She ran down the street desperate for help and was eventually picked up by police and the next day got taken from a battered women’s shelter.

These next few events in Elaine’s life resemble slave narratives by showing how she hit her lowest point and finally desired an escape from her enslavement. She was slowly piecing her life back together by returning to school, taking responsibility for her daughters, and staying away from prostitution and drugs. Although things were looking up, Elaine didn’t quite yet have the full strength and drive to change her life around. And so, she hit rock bottom.

Not too long after Elaine was released from her ninety days at the shelter and put into her own apartment, all of her hard work and stability she had in her life fell through. Getting high again once was all that did it. She started disappearing for weeks at a time; leaving her daughter with other people and losing sight of her responsibilities. The worst part of it all was that she was pregnant with her second child and re-addicted to drugs. Elaine claimed, “I looked a mess and I was a mess. A pregnant, tired, drugged out paranoid matted wig wearing hooker”(Richardson 183). She had come so far and got sober just to end up at the bottom again. To make matters worse, she could no longer feel her baby moving and believed it was dead. Little did Elaine know, her trip to the hospital was going to be the best thing that happened to her life.